Preferences and special commands

The Universalis menu

The Universalis menu (just to the right of the Apple menu) contains the following useful commands:

Preferences – see below.

Set up Daily Emails – takes you to our web site, where you can arrange to receive automatic daily emails of selected pages from Universalis.

Check for Updates – by default, Universalis checks our web site once a month to see if there is an updated version of the program. If you don't want it to do this, you can turn updates off.

Preferences

The Preferences screen is accessible with the menu command Universalis > Preferences. It is divided into pages.

Preferences: Calendar

Liturgical Calendar

There is a General Calendar, shared by the whole Church, and then there are local calendars which have saints and celebrations of more local interest. For example, Saint Benedict is celebrated with a memorial in the universal Church but with a feast in Europe, while Saint Willibrord, who isn't in the General Calendar at all, is celebrated with an optional memorial in some English dioceses and a solemnity in the Netherlands.

Not all local calendars are included in Universalis, but an increasing number are. Pick the one that looks best for you.

Use the same Invitatory Psalm every day

Four different psalms may be used as the Invitatory Psalm, although Psalm 94 (95) is the traditional one. Universalis lets you choose whether to rotate between the permitted options or stick to Psalm 94 (95) permanently ("Use the same Invitatory Psalm every day").

Automatically share this calendar with your Mac

If you turn this option on, Universalis will create a separate events calendar with the saints and celebrations for each day. You can then view that calendar in your Mac's Calendar application.

The Calendar application will automatically alert you each day. If you don't want this:

Open the Calendar application.

If you do not see a list of calendars on the left-hand side, press the "Calendars" button at the top left of the Calendar screen.

In the list of calendars, find "Universalis Auto (Mac)" and right-click on it. A menu will pop up.

In the menu, select "Get Info". An information screen will appear.

Turn on the option labelled "Ignore Alerts".

Preferences: Translations

Use the Grail translation of the psalms

The Grail translation is the one used in most English versions of the Liturgy of the Hours worldwide. For copyright reasons we have to use a version of our own in our web pages, so we offer it here as an alternative in case you have got used to it.

Show the Liturgy of the Hours in Latin as well as English

This gives you a parallel Latin-English version. The Latin is the current official Vatican edition.

Use the New American Bible translation for Mass readings

By default, Universalis uses the Jerusalem Bible with the Grail psalms. This is the most usual translation in the English-speaking world, though others are permitted. But the New American Bible is the translation used in the USA, so we provide this also.

We apologize to Canada and South Africa: we are still trying to negotiate with the owners of the NRSV, which you are using at Mass.

Show the Greek text of the Gospels as well as the English

This is for personal study rather than liturgical use.

Order of Mass

You can view Latin or one of a number of other European languages in parallel with the English text of the Order of Mass. This is intended to help you follow Mass when you are abroad. The Mass Today page will also show you the parallel texts, but it will display the daily content (prayers, psalms and readings) in English only.

Include the priest's private prayers

You can choose whether to include in the Order of Mass (and in Mass Today) the prayers that are said silently or quietly by the priest.